Reframing Randolph: Labor, Black Freedom, and the Legacies of A. Philip Randolph

During the middle of the twentieth century, he was one of the most recognizable labor and civil rights leaders in America. People knew him and what he did; but unfortunately he has been overshadowed by other names and is seemingly lost to time. This book hopes to stop that decline and make his name more well-known again. It is a collection of essays that explores the life, struggles, and times that A. Philip Randolph lived through and helped shape, from leading the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and getting an official union contract with the Pullman Car Company to initially leading the March on Washington movement in the early 1940s, and finally culminating in the actual March on Washington in the 1960s, by which point younger leaders were becoming well-known.

This book helps fill an important hole in the literature on black civil rights and black labor rights in the mid-twentieth century. The authors do a good job of focusing on one point and explaining its significance. While written by historians, it is not dry and boring; it is engaging and provocative, helping to bring to life a forgotten leader.